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well...

the next question then...is ohhhh...how much is she willing to spend...LOL...cuz if ya let me play with lots of money there are more options than we could count...LOL

but...

assuming that budget is reasonable yet not unlimited...you might consider a version of what James tried to show you but with a scissor lift on furniture you have to have fixed points somewhere both ends top and bottom can not both move..

if you have access to a machine shop or a friend ... you can create what you need to make a nice clean mechanism for a modified scissor lift.

Also for about $500 or so...less? more...depending.. you could put a ball transfer/linear actuator to move it electrically.

the slower and lighter the less it will cost to move. The problem is you usually end up at a mechanical disadvantage when trying ot keep things clean to you have to provide more force than the weight you are actually trying to lift.

hope this helps...any questions or more specifics..just ask

Sorry if this is too general...I hate when people try to solve my problems as opposed to trying to help me work through and still get where I wanted to be so I am being intentionally vague...don't want to influence the artistic process too much...

You might be able to weld some mounts for low pressure cylinders inside two or 4 of the legs. They're used on car hoods and hatches, etc, probably come in any size and lifting pressure.

You could have the pressure balanced against the weight of the table, where one finger (OK that may be pushing it) could raise and lower the thing.

Another unrelated idea is for locking the top into place: You might do something like bicycles have for the quick release on their seats and wheels. I think it's called a cam-lock. It would be cleaner looking and easier than a pin, IMO.

You could do a McMaster-Carr search (I love their site) and find probably a million fasteners/ latches and misc. hardware to do a good quality and unique job.

Thanks for all the thoughts and ideas. I've still been pondering and a lot of your ideas helped me think outside the box but so far, I still think that the telescoping legs with some locking pins might be the best. This is a very fussy client who likes clean lines/looks so the scissor-lift wouldn't work. By the way, thanks for the McMaster-Carr website - I'd never heard of it and I am in love! I'll be drooling over that for quite a while! While just quickly looking thru some of their stuff, they actually had scissor-lift mechanisms (12" base lifting 12" - perfect) - however, it warns not to activate it with the weight on top. Too bad.
Anyways, I am going to check out the suggestion for the cam-lock vs. a pin. I'll let you know what I end up doing - want to get a price quote together in the next few days.
Again, thanks for all the input.
Cat
P.S. Hubby is pondering also and has suggested two rectangular leg frames (one on each end of the table) that are 18" by 30". When it is a coffee table, use the 18" side as the legs, when it is a dining table, remove the top, flip the frames over so the 30" sides are the legs. The only problem is having to completely remove the top and set it somewhere.......but I'm thinking about it.